Our quarterly corporate Rocks constantly fail because they require cross-departmental collaboration, and departments end up blaming each other for delays. How do we structure Rock ownership and hand-offs so that multi-department Rocks actually get done?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Cross-departmental Rocks are the graveyard of execution because they suffer from diluted ownership. When multiple department heads are responsible for a single corporate Rock, nobody is actually responsible. To ensure your quarterly Rocks finish on time, you must establish a single point of accountability and clear rules for cross-functional collaboration.

Every corporate Rock must have exactly one owner from the leadership team. This owner is not necessarily the person doing all the work, but they are the single individual responsible for keeping the Rock on track and reporting its status. If a Rock requires input from other departments, those deliverables must be broken down into specific weekly To-Dos or individual departmental Rocks for the support team members.

To guarantee execution on complex, multi-department Rocks, implement this framework:

- Define the exact scope and definition of done for the Rock during your quarterly planning session.
- Ensure any support needed from other departments is agreed upon and locked in as a supporting Rock or priority for those specific managers.
- Use the weekly Level 10 Meeting to flag any departmental delays immediately during the Rock review, rather than waiting until week twelve to realize there is a bottleneck.

By eliminating shared ownership and clarifying individual dependencies, you remove the excuses and ensure your Rocks reach the finish line.